Category: God, Jesus

We are all seekers. Whether you believe in God as Father, Mother, Earth, Universe, or some other entity, you’ve placed yourself in that boat with all the rest of us. We want truth. We want our lives to have meaning. We want to improve ourselves, our marriage, our homes and our lives. The list goes on and on.

So what is it we’re searching for, exactly? And why does it take a lifetime, and then some, to actually get there?

Jesus said “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

But why?

To Stand Solid in a Storm

As I have gotten to *cough cough* a certain age, I am watching friends go through many types of hardship and pain. The stress of losing their beloved parents has happened to some. Finding out a spouse or loved one has cancer is another. And a few have been completely let down by the ones they loved the most. Through it all, what I have noticed is that those with a solid, godly foundation are better in the storm. Those without faith waver and falter. The Christians may question, but in the end they feel rooted, secure — unshakable.

God is knowable, touchable, hearable, seeable, with the mind, the hands, the ears and the eyes of…

To Be His Friend

Believe it or not, God pursued us first. Is that hard to believe? He has handed you a blanket invitation to come and get to know Him. In fact, He created us just so we could be his companions; he wants us to find Him.

Knowing God is a privilege like no other. By seeking God, we get to know him better (much like spending time with your circle of friends). Furthermore, through our pursuit of God, when we admire Him, He is lifted up.

To Find Soul-Deep Satisfaction

Seeking God gives us the ability to find purpose in our lives. God’s presence gives us deep fulfillment like no one else can, like no thing or position or feeling can. Even when we are just beginning to look for him, we can feel little snippets of that deep contentment. We can grasp them and hold on until the next one….and the next one…and so on.

To Change for the Better

He wanted us to seek Him out in order for us to change. By trying to get to know Him and spend time with Him, we begin to take on His own Holy character, His goodness, His gentle way of loving others. He wanted us to change our lives. The awareness we develop about God and who He really is enables us to start changing right away.

Filling the Holes in our Hearts

Some time back I searched through a number of Christian blogs. I was looking for a tiny bit of encouragement, a message of hope, or an uplifting post. What I found was eleventy thousand posts all dealing with the negative and the hardships and the trouble with life.

[Yes it’s a real number, and it’s mine.]

When we have holes in our spiritual life, they are not necessarily filled by focusing on the bad, by reworking and reliving and re-discussing the negative situations we encounter daily. We can’t fill those holes by dwelling on them.

Just like a hole in the side of a boat, the holes in our spiritual cloth must not be left open; if they are, the good that is inside will leak out and the dirty water that is outside will leak in. Instead, they need to be plugged with a different substance. Sometimes they are filled by hearing a positive message. Often they are filled by other people.

Those holes in our spiritual life represent our neediness. We need/want to be accepted. We want to feel loved. We want to believe we are worthy. We want to know for sure that we are forgiven.

I remember a friend observing someone….she said, “He has a hole in his heart that needs to be filled with the love of God.”

She was right.

Often we go to others to get these needs filled, and something different happens. We think we will get help. We think that our community holds the answers, they are more mature, or they have a higher position, or they’re older so they know better.

Instead of helping us patch the holes they drag us down. And we would have known this would happen, had we read our Bibles:

Isaiah 14:10 They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are;you have become like us.”

“But wait!” You cry, “I didn’t want to become like them! I’m not supposed to.”

You would be right. Because you have that hole in the boat, and you decided to repair it using rotten wood and a toy hammer–your friends– instead of the grind and patch process, now you’re part of a different community. In this community, everybody’s boat is on dry land. It’s like a sea of boats except they’re not on the sea; they’re all laying side-by-side in a vast field of brokenness.

“All I wanted was to feel loved,” you say, feeling hopelessly off course and off kilter.

Ah, but it’s the way you went about it that was wrong. It’s the way we all go about it that moves us so far from True North.

C.S. Lewis said, “We do not want to merely “see” beauty–though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words–to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”

We want to belong.

That’s the crux of the matter.

It is why we reach out, over and over, to the wrong places in the wrong people. It’s why we can’t stop trying, even when we say we are going to. How many times do we say “Never again will I—“

We are compelled to keep reaching.

When your heart is only half full, it is easy to reach in the wrong direction. It is only when we see dirty water leaking into the boat that we realize what we’ve done. It wasn’t helpful, but detrimental. It wasn’t quenching your thirst, instead it left you begging for more. And when left alone, that heart will not fill up by itself. Next time, drink water straight from the source:

John 7:37,38 “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.” (MSG)

Rivers. Of living water.

Rivers that brim

And spill

And spill from your depths, my depths

Our depths!

Imagine the beauty, the fulfilment of brimming with the Holy Spirit until we spill over.

I’ve been thinking on this blog for months. Actually not just the blog, but the entire website. Does it meet its purpose? Why am I feeling like it’s a weight around my neck lately? Am I burned out? Should I stop writing?

My focus over the past few years has been narrow. I did it that way on purpose. But now I have the God>I website to handle the “narrow focus” part, plus I’m feeling rather squished in this box, the one I put myself in.

You see, I secretly have desired to expand into more lifestyle-oriented topics, yet I want to honor who I am as a child of God. Is that possible?

Well, of course it is, I decided; after all we struggle and think on and marinate in all our daily “stuff.” Things like, should I switch churches? Should I send my child to Christian school? Do I really act as a wife/mother/teacher ought to act? What do other people do when X does XYZ?

And I would like to share my wreaths, handmade jewelry, and *maybe even* my paintings-in-progress with you. And yes, recipes. But I’ve felt that I shouldn’t, in order to be true to the ‘purpose’ of the blog.

Then there’s my voice. I talk to you like I speak in person, but I’d really like to talk to you like I think. Like I speak to myself in my head. The silliness, the fun jokes I don’t ever share; I see humor almost everywhere. Really. You didn’t know that, did you?

You thought I was some serious Jesus freak. You were both right, and wrong.

So friends, we’re gonna fix this thang.

Starting now, we are going to embark on a new adventure. First, I am melding the website and blog into one. It has a new look. (Do you like it? I wanted something reaaaally girly) And I’m going to talk about the mundane things of life, the things that affect us whether we are Christians or not, whether we are thinking Christlike thoughts in that moment or not, and whether we are doing the right thing.

Or not.

I might even share a recipe or two.

I believe this will enable us to have dialogs that are more real, more honest, and probably deeper than we could in the past. I hope this doesn’t offend my 2,000+ followers. I truly believe it will be for the better — but I know we humans hate change.

Seeking God

This was part of a private message (Facebook) discussion. The person was asking questions about my Get Closer to God course. Unfortunately, there are way too many people who take this attitude.

I’m not griping because she didn’t make the purchase. In fact, I encouraged her not to. The thing is, I want people who buy it to (1) actually work through it – it’s set up in worksheet style, and (2) allow God to help them make a change. If those things are not going to take place, then there is no need to purchase the program.

And if the first words out of your mouth are “I can’t” then nothing will change.

Isn’t the definition of madness doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Why do we do that? We say we are seeking God, yet have not made one single change?

I’m no longer talking about the one Facebook fan, but about myself, and maybe even you, dear reader…

What change have I made to find God

Sans Dieu Rien

Today

Yesterday

This month

This Year

Think about it………

Often the difference between a Christ-like person, a God seeker, and a person who struggles to implement positive changes in life is not the first one’s superior abilities or innate holiness, but the courage to step out and to take steady steps forward in prayer, Bible study, and by surrounding him/herself with Christian thinkers. Seeking God is a continuum.

“Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.” Proverbs 19:2, ESV

One Step Closer is designed in a way that you will have to spend time on it, and therefore, time in front of the Lord. There was a reason it was created that way.

God wants you to spend time with Him. You already know that. People who want to change have to try things to see what works and what doesn’t. Seeking God requires action.Saying you want to change doesn’t work. You can say it until the cows come home. Actually making a change takes perseverance. It takes courage. And it takes… time. The course forces you to spend a little more time in front of God, listening to God…and as a result you’ll become closer.

I’m not going to go into my rant about ‘time’ and ‘busy;’ I’ll save that one. But there is a saying that goes “If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.” This is as true in strengthening your faith as in anything else. If you aren’t going to change the way… the time… the steps you take when you relate to God, your relationship will continue to be distant and formal. He didn’t move away, after all– you did.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8, ESV

Seek God Daily

Some people sit and wait for God to come to them in a shimmering epiphany. Others pursue Him as if they’re on fire, spending time in front of Him whether they “see” Him that day or not, constantly chasing after Him, stepping forward steadily.

It’s not a contest, but if it were, guess who’d win?

Maybe He even wants us to struggle, just a little, to get where He wants us to be: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,” 2 Peter 3:9, ESV

Since the only contestant is you, and the prize is a stronger, steadier relationship with the One who is Lord of All, why not change something today? See what happens. I challenge you.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17, ESV

This is a picture I made to hang in front of my desk….I was thinking it in French (Sans Dieu, Rien) but it came out in English, didn’t it? Never mind….it conveys the same message. Without God, I am nothing.

Does anyone have trouble referring to God as “father”? I did a little survey recently based on this question. I mostly found that people who are close with their own father, the earthly father, are able to relate to a heavenly father in a good way. They pray with a feeling of familiarity, a closeness.

But those who are less close to their earthly father have a hard time referring to God as father.They pray to someone distant.

And then there are those who take it way too far, calling him “the Man upstairs” or other familiar names. To me, this lacks completely and reverence and isn’t how we are supposed to address him.

So here’s my question to you. How do you personally make sense of the awesomeness of God when there is the ability to have such intimacy with him at the same time? How do you strike the balance without being irreverent?

Hint: This is part of my next book!

And thinking of “Our Father” reminded me of the Don Moen song, so here it is for you to enjoy. Don’t forget to leave a comment below!

Do we approach God from a beggar’s perspective or as His cherished child? If we have any difficulty seeing Him as our loving Father, we need to ask Him to help us develop a healthy Father/child relationship. ~ David Jeremiah

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